Edward gestured toward the front of the room once the door closed behind Cody and Dylan led Amber to a position where the two could communicate with everyone in the room. After ensuring the pair had everything under control, and making eye contact with Amber’s parents Edward sent them a message letting them know he was headed to his office to speak with Cody. He requested they keep him informed about the business at hand until he returned.
Edward was furious when he opened the door to his office. He had discussed possible solutions to the problem confronting him with Dennis as he walked and they came up with a workable plan. As soon as Edward was inside the office Dennis headed out at a jog, eager to find the items he needed to implement the plan if the results of the talk called for it.
“A week ago you stood in this office and indicated you wanted to join Dylan’s pack. It took him mere seconds to identify the feelings you had for his mate were feelings of hate. I knew you were angry, but hatred? Toward Amber? What did she do to you and why would you consider joining a pack where you held hatred for the leadership?”
“Fletcher is dead because of her. She led him on. She told him she loved him knowing he loved her. She killed him.”
“No. She didn’t kill him. You can love many people in your life but you will never love any of them one half the way you love a mate. And you will never love a mate even a fraction of how you will love a true-mate. Amber never made any indication she was willing to settle for anything other than a true-mate. Fletcher was told she would say no by me. I told him she would not take him for a mate. When he asked her she told him no. Do you honestly want to sit there and tell me to make him happy she should have been miserable for the next few hundred years? Do you think so little of the females that so one friend can be happy you are willing to make a female miserable and sad and lonely. You want to tell me she should have destroyed her dream for him?”
“Yes! He could have made her happy. He loved her.”
“He loved her so much that when she said no he terrorized her. He loved her so much that when she said no he held her down, gagged her, tied her up and stuffed her in a bag. His love was so great he then took that bag and dropped it in the boot of his car and drove, with her bumping around in the back, not knowing if he was going to hold her, beat her, rape her or kill her. Is that your notion of love?”
“He didn’t do that. He wouldn’t have done that. He loved her. He wouldn’t have hurt her. Maybe he got carried away and lost his head for a minute but if she would have given him a chance she would have realized how much he loved her.”
Dennis? Go ahead with the plan.
“You asked me a week ago if you could leave my pack. Well since you felt that way I am going to assume you still want to leave. Dennis will escort you out of the territory and do whatever he feels is best.”
Dennis walked in the room then holding a large bag. While Edward held him down Dennis tied him up exactly how Amber had described being tied. The smell of the young man’s terror filled the room. After he was tied the two lifted him and dropped him into the bag. Edward zipped the bag and carried it outside and dropped the boy in the boot of Dennis’ car. Nodding to Dennis he slammed the lid closed. His power was great enough the boy couldn’t break through his command not to use the pack path. He was now as helpless as Amber had been but he didn’t have the advantage of a hasty kidnapping to help him escape the bonds. Dennis headed toward the front of the car and with one last wave he drove away. Edward told him to drive around for at least two hours before returning, and to hit every hole he could find. Edward wanted the boy to feel the terror of Amber’s ride and the uncertainty of what waited for him at the end of the ride. If the boy still did not understand the situation when they returned Edward would have to decide what to do with the boy. But Edward was betting the boy would be so filled with terror he would have a new outlook on life, and he wasn’t wrong.
Two hours later, when Dennis stopped the car in front of Edward’s office and opened the boot he had to take a step back. Twisting his head away he listened to the boy’s frantic moans. The boot smelled of feces and urine from the terror which had caused the boy to lose control. Edward pulled the bag from the boot and dropped it on the ground.
I didn’t expect that. I don’t want that smell in the office.
Dennis’ lips twitched. He will either have a new attitude or you will have to kill him. Gods he stinks. What do you want me to do with him?
Edward stared at the bag a moment longer before heading for the back yard. Drag him around back. We can wash him off with the hose.
Dennis unzipped the bag when they reached the back yard and flipped it over, dumping Cody onto the ground. Edward turned the hose on and started spraying. It’s no use, he fouled himself too bad. Get a knife and cut him lose. He can strip and clean himself.
Cody lay on the ground staring at the two in terror. When Dennis returned with a knife the boy tried futilely to escape, tears pouring down his cheeks. Dennis cut the last cord and stepped away but Cody didn’t move.
“We have the evidence from the tent. We smelled her terror. We have the cords from the boot, covered with the scent of her fear. We have the gag he used to keep her mouth shut. She couldn’t call for help. I shut down your pathway to the pack, essentially taking away your ability to call for help. You were put in that boot not knowing what waited for you at the other end. Your Alpha, the man who should protect you from anything he can is the one who ordered Dennis to do this. Your Alpha, the man you should trust above anyone, ordered this done. You were part of my pack when I issued the order. Did you know what waited for you at the end of the ride? Are you terrified of what I could do next?”
Cody stared at Edward in terror and nodded. “Yet you blame Amber for Fletcher’s actions? Is it your fault I issued the order? Is it your fault? You did say you thought you might like to leave the pack. I wanted you to have a taste of what Amber went through. Now magnify it. He could have raped her and killed her wolf because she said no. Can you imagine living without your wolf? Do you still want to tell me his death was her fault? Do you want me to believe she should have no choice as long as he was happy? What if it made me happy to make you my slave? What if I used my Alpha power to stop you from ever shifting again? If it made me happy you would be okay with that wouldn’t you?”
Cody shook his head and tried to speak. His voice broke as he apologized. “I didn’t know. I thought she made it up to get rid of him.”
“You little fool. I can smell a lie. Don’t you think I questioned him? Don’t you think I took the evidence we had and questioned him? He was dead before we knew where Amber was. He was dead before I found her at Dylan’s. Nothing she said cost him his life. His actions and his words were what killed him. Even if she had lied, she didn’t have to get rid of him. She isn’t part of this pack anymore. She would never have to see him again if he was still alive. Do you think what he did was right? Is this the kind of man you want to be?”
Cody was sobbing as he answered, “I didn’t know. He was all I had. I don’t know what to do without him to lead me. I didn’t know. He made it sound like everything was great. I’m sorry. Please don’t kill me. Please.”
“Get up you little idiot. I am not going to kill you. I told you I can smell a lie. I believe you. But the command to not use the pack path is still open. I will not rescind that order for one week. You will know what it is like to be unable to speak with others. I want your phone and tablet also. For the next week you will spend every day helping Dennis with what ever he decides you need to do.” Edward held up a hand, “Wait, I’m not done. I am well away you work for Claude. Claude has been told you will be taking a week off to help Dennis. Your job will be waiting for you when you return. I am sure Dennis will think of suitable things for you to do. As far as I am concerned you learned your lesson and we will not speak of this again. The pack has been ordered to keep their distance from here since before you returned. The only people who know how you came back in that bag are t
he three of us. I have no intention of making you a laughing stock of the pack by letting them see you soiled yourself. Strip out of those clothes, hose yourself off, shift and go home. The pack will be informed only that I had an issue and you are banned from pack communication for a week. Use that week to figure some things out son. I can’t save you from stupidity if you don’t try to save yourself. Consider this a warning. I will kill you to protect our females. They are too few and too precious to endanger. Now get out of my sight.”
Epilogue
“This is so exciting. I can’t believe we leave tomorrow.” Amber danced around the room packing and unpacking bags. No one thought to tell her Dylan was expected in the States almost as soon as they returned to Edwards. They had spent two nights at his house and interviewed seventeen people after Cody had been banned from the room.
“I can’t believe all seventeen people agreed to join my pack. With your parents that gives us twenty-one pack members, counting us of course. With Nadia and her baby sister we have two underage females and that scares me a little. But it also gives us a bonus for getting more people to join the pack. We just have to keep them safe. It will only be a few years for Nadia to reach maturity.”
“I know. Isn’t it great. I can’t believe her parents are letting her go with us.”
“Well, it is smart. We know she doesn’t have a mate in Edward’s pack. Checking the packs in the States we might find a male for her and that will increase our pack by one because he will want to come immediately. He will not like his future mate being in a new pack.”
“You are a genius, babe.”
Dylan gave a long suffering sigh as he took the shirt away from Amber. “Love, you see this shirt? I like this shirt. We are taking this shirt. Quit taking it out of the suitcase.”
Amber stared at the shirt in horror. “No, Dylan, it is ugly. You can’t take it. Look at it.”
Dylan tightened his lips, “I like it. I want to take it.”
“But, you have no fashion sense at all. Please don’t take it. It is truly grotesque.”
“I don’t care. It is one of my favorite shirts. I want to take it. And leave my shoes alone. I am taking those also.”
“No. Absolutely not. I am not going to be seen in public with you in those shoes.”
“Baby, please. They are comfortable.”
“And ugly. Be reasonable. We want to make a good impression with the other packs. You don’t want to wear Crocks.”
Edward’s voice floated down the hall, “Marcus wears Crocks. Leave the boy be and let him pack what he wants. Men don’t care what the other Alphas wear. Just pack the damn clothes he wants and be done with it.”
Dylan stuck his tongue out at Amber and blew a raspberry. “Listen to the man. He is more experienced than either of us. What did I tell you about learning to lead from experienced people.”
“Real mature there. Besides, clothes don’t count. Men don’t know anything about fashion.”
“Exactly, so why does it matter?”
Amber threw her hands up in despair, “Fine, pack what you want. But I don’t want to hear a word of complaint about what I wear to bed.”
“Wait, what does that have to do with anything.”
Again Edward’s voice drifted down the hall. “You just lost the argument Dylan. Shut the fuck up and let the woman pack what she wants. They pack better than we do anyway. And go the fuck to bed. It is late and some people want to sleep.”
Dylan looked at Amber. Payback is a bitch darling. Remember that.
Challenge accepted.
The End
More books are coming but before that happens a few other things have to happen in my other series. Join me on FaceBook to keep up with the Safe Haven Wolves.
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Author Notes
Well, this was an interesting book to write. I want to give a special thank you to the man in my life for only looking at me like I was crazy and barely backing away when I asked for a favor and held up some rope. He was poised to run but I was laughing so hard as I begged him for the small favor, just one tiny favor that he finally asked me what I wanted. I explained I wrote a scene where the female was kidnapped and tied up and I needed him to tie me up and let me see if I could get free in a reasonable time. Guys, I couldn’t even move, much less get free!! And then… he took advantage of me being tied up to tickle me! I am so very ticklish. It was done in great fun, and unlike many females who go through such awful things in real life I knew when I handed him the rope I could absolutely trust him not to do anything horrible to me. He then untied me and we proceeded to test things that would allow me to escape on my own. He thinks I am crazy. I am not sure what leads him to believe that.
I asked my team some time back for some suggestions for names and they came through with a name for my villain. So I want to thank Tiffany Steinert for offering the name Fletcher and Kelly Gay for suggesting Nadia. Originally Nadia was to be a female in Gammon’s pack but she wanted to be Amber’s best friend instead. These two ladies also gave the description of the characters, which I used. Perhaps not as eloquently as they gave them, but mostly.
The places in the book do exist but I may have used a bit of artistic license to subvert the surroundings to fit the needs of the story. There really is a festival in Maidenwell in May. I do not know if Virginia and her family go to this particular festival, but I am almost certain they do not. I do know Dean goes. The song Fools Gold is a real song sung by Dean Perrett, an award winning Bush Balladeer from Queensland. I used google maps to help me determine distances and, as stated, used a bit of artistic license. I am sure Amber would have seen signs letting her know where she was before she ran out of gas outside the gates of Bowenfel. I used the little google buddy to walk down the road, but he got tired when we didn’t see a sign after a couple of kilometers other than for a truck pull off and he quit. Or, well I got tired of clicking the mouse to send him down the road. Either explanation will work.
Where possible I attempted to use the Australian words for such things as boot instead of trunk. I wanted a bit of realism in the story. I had to do a search and replace for the entire chapter because it was only at the end of the chapter that I realized I should be staying true to the wording. I also had to change mom to mum in a few places, but I have to do that anytime I write Kate so that wasn’t unexpected.
I have tried to stay true to the time-line as it has played out in the series. The series started in August with Gabby and she mated Trey in December. Just days later Trina arrived and in January she mated Jaden. Craig recovered and left to take some time to get over things and ended up in New Mexico and after a few weeks he mated Kate. This put us into February. Within a couple of weeks he and Kate went on the mission with everyone to rescue Dawn, who had already, with Alice, saved themselves. Miranda happened in March, followed immediately by Nicole, which was followed immediately by Casey also in March. They were gone a month to the ship bringing them back home toward the end of April. This book took place at the beginning of May. If someone was terribly critical they could find fault with the time line, please don’t be terribly critical. Everything that has happened to the packs have taken place in less than a year so it is no surprise they are terribly jumpy about things, especially Marcus.
I have readers waiting to find out how the curse will turn out and if we will see the end of the rogues. They want to see what happens to Senator Avery and why William was acting so strange with the politics. They want to know who the spy is and what happened to several other characters. I usually have a pre-order up for the next book by the time one book is finished. If you are reading this book and you don’t see another one, there will be one. But I do have another series I have to take care of before I can come back to this one. Dacron is hanging around space in Mela’s ship on his way to Earth in the other series and I need to work on it. My mother is impatiently waiting on the next book in The Deyarian Universe. She doesn’t give a squat about this
series and will never even open one of the books to look at it but she is demanding I write the next Deyarian book. The woman has done so much for me I need to do this for her.
Also, years and years ago she wrote a children’s book. She asked me once about doing a children’s book and I laughed and told her no way would I ever go that route. You see, before you say anything, she didn’t tell me she wrote one before I was born and submitted it to a publisher and got a rejection letter back. It was too sweet the rejection letter said. My mother handed off this manuscript to my sister to publish for her. Blinks a few times, let that sink in, instead of telling the daughter who has several books published what she wanted she gave it to the one who doesn’t know anything about where to start. So of course my sister calls me up and tells me what mom did. Because her idea of where to start was to hand the book off to the only publisher in the family. So I make a trip to her town to retrieve the manuscript so I can get it published. I want to do this for a Christmas present. It will take time.
There will be more books in this series, but it will be a few months. In the meantime Gabby is going out on Audible and will be republished with additional chapters. By the time you read this Gabby may already have been published again. If you bought it the first time, and you send me a copy of the receipt, I will send you the revised edition. The three chapters will also be available on my blog and I will send it out to my newsletter. I want to make sure, if you paid for the book the first time you do not pay for the same book just to gain three chapters.
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